


Five People Who Never Died (And One Who Did)

by afteriwake



Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-20
Updated: 2012-09-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 15:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How things might have been different if five victims hadn't died and if one victim who survived hadn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five People Who Never Died (And One Who Did)

**Author's Note:**

> As far as we know, Louie may or may not still be alive. I, personally, am betting that he's dead, based on what Danny said and the way he said it at the end of "Hung Out To Dry." Everyone else mentioned as someone who never died has been confirmed dead on the series at some point.

**\- Claire Taylor -**

He was tired. He had gotten sleep the night before, but the drain of the cases had just started to wear him out lately. Reed had come over and the three of them had stayed up and talked into the night. He yawned, and then smiled. _Long_ into the night, he amended. For the first time in years he'd shown up late for work. Stella had made the obligatory innuendo, and he'd grinned. Things never seemed to change between him and her, and he liked that. Danny had also made his obligatory smart-ass comment, and that was received with a shake of the head, a grin and a "get back to work, Danny."

Days like that day, where he got pounded by cases and had no real relief...the only thing that made them good was going home to Claire. As he walked up the steps of the complex he realized that she meant more to him than he ever really told her, and he needed to tell her. Tonight.

He made it up to their apartment and opened the door. She didn't turn around, her body hunched over the stove and her hair falling in her face. "Mac? Or Reed?"

"Mac," he said with a grin.

"Sometimes I wonder if giving Reed a key was a bad idea."

"He's your son." She turned and smiled at him. "How was your day?"

"Quiet. Yours?"

"Busy. Lindsay got bitten by a snake and I learned more about pigeon racing then I'd ever planned to."

"Back up here. Bitten by a _snake_?" Mac nodded. "You aren't joking."

"No. I wish I was. She's okay," he added quickly.

"Maybe I should call her," Claire said, grabbing a dishtowel and wiping her hands. Mac smiled; his wife cared about every member of his team like they were her own children. It was one of the things that warmed his heart.

"Claire?"

"Yes?" She looked at him for a long moment as he came up to her.

"Thank you."

"For what, Mac?"

"For being here, and being you." He kissed her softly and then pulled away, watching the look on her face. "Go call Lindsay."

She grinned at him and headed to the phone, leaving him wondering if what he'd told her had been enough. As he watched her, though, he knew deep down it had been.

**\- Aiden Burn -**

"So, Messer, we still on for tonight?"

"You making chicken cacciatore?"

"For you, when don't I?"

"When you're making something else."

"Oh, real smooth, Danny." She looked around her apartment. "You're lucky I tolerate you."

"You're lucky I'm dating you."

"You're lucky I said you were in my league," she retorted. She heard him laugh on the other end of the line and smiled to herself. He'd been there for her after she got fired, finally convinced her to just let the case she got fired over go. She hadn't wanted to, at first; she'd rather have tailed Pratt around and caught him in the act.

The night he talked her into letting it go was also the first night they seriously talked about where they stood in whatever relationship it was that they had. Not even two hours after they started talking they figured out "more than friends" worked best.

She hadn't been happier, not even when she was on the force. She was working towards her PI's license, had laid her demons to rest...she'd even gone to the labs the day they finally nailed Pratt's ass to the wall. Mac had given her a hug and she'd had to blink back tears, tears of joy and gratitude.

"Aid? You still there?"

"Yeah, just plotting out how many chickens I need to have killed to feed you."

"Very funny. I'll be there in an hour."

"Hey, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"You be careful, all right?"

"Always am." He paused for a minute. "Love ya, Aiden."

She felt herself grin and blush slightly. Oh, she _knew_ he loved her but he'd never said it. "Love ya too, Danny." She hung up, looked at the phone for a minute, and set it down. Things had worked out better than she'd thought they would.

**\- Frankie Mala -**

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I do."

"You may be seated." Stella sat down on the stand. She'd been up there before, plenty of times. Testifying as to facts of a case, explaining evidence, being the smart cop who made the collar and made sure the perp got sent away...

She couldn't bring herself to look at the defense's side, so she looked over at Hawkes and Flack sitting behind the DA. They weren't just there to testify to what they had seen when he'd attacked her, when he'd come so close to killing her... If she hadn't fired off the shot the police wouldn't have been called. She wouldn't have been saved.

Her hand drifted up to the bruise on her neck. He'd come close to strangling her. She'd broken free and shot at him. Now she was only angry that she'd missed.

She answered the DA's questions as best she could...some things were still fuzzy, and even having told as much of it to Flack as she could remember hadn't helped her _really_ remember. She handled the defense attorney's questions like a pro, annoyed that the man kept standing in a way that made her look at Frankie. She kept trying to pull her eyes away. He was so good at fooling people with how he looked and acted...

He'd managed to fool her.

"That's all, Detective," the judge said. He looked down at his papers as Stella stood up. "The court is recessed until nine tomorrow morning."

She hurriedly went over to Hawkes and Flack. Hawkes enfolded her in a hug, the same type that Flack had at the hospital. She shut her eyes and clung to him, knowing she wouldn't open her eyes and let go until she was sure Frankie was out of the room.

"It's okay, Stella," Hawkes said quietly, stroking her hair back. God, she loved how Hawkes knew exactly what to do to make any situation better. He read her like an open book and it meant the world to her that he still could even after she'd pulled into herself after the attack.

"He's gone, Stell," Flack said. "You can untangle yourself from Hawkes now and re-tangle yourself over here."

She laughed, a sound she hadn't heard much from her throat since the attack. She turned to Flack and he hugged her as well. "What would I do without you two?" she said. She'd stayed with Flack a few days after the incident, and after one more attempt to stay at her apartment again she headed over to Hawkes and took him up on his offer of a spare room until she could find another place. It had been months, she was still there, and her relationship with Hawkes was slowly changing into something more than a friendship. She trusted him, more than she'd ever trusted Frankie. Hawkes would _never_ hurt her, she knew that.

She let go of Flack and he slipped an arm around her shoulders. She looked at Hawkes and he took her free hand in his. "Come on, guys. We're done with this...let's go." Hawkes squeezed her hand and she knew that once the verdict came in she'd be able to put the whole thing behind her and move on.

**\- Lindsay's Friends -**

"You ever wanted to go to New York?" her friend asked her.

Lindsay shrugged. "Yeah. Who doesn't want to? Not like I'm going to _go_ though. I'm happy here."

"How can you be happy in Bozeman?"

"I just am." She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the sky. She _was_ happy here. This was home, and nothing would change that. She didn't want to leave, not even for the chance to live in New York. She was here with her friends, with a job she loved, with the perfect guy for her...why did she need a change?

"You have work tomorrow?" her friend asked.

She nodded, turning her head to her friend. "I never thought I'd say it, but teaching is easier than I thought it would be."

"That's because you teach high school chemistry," she said with a smirk. "Just wait until midterms...it'll get harder."

"Like you have that much more experience than I do."

"Well, I do."

She laughed and turned back, looking up at the sky again. Sure, New York was exciting...but it wasn't home, and it would never _be_ home, because home was here in Montana, and she knew that deep down inside herself.

**\- Louie Messer -**

"You need to get up out of bed," Danny said, pulling open the shade. His brother blinked his eyes as the sunlight hit him full in the face.

"Danny...the hell?" Louie said as he sat up.

"Ma wants us at home in about an hour. Get up, shower and get dressed." He stared at his brother, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Since when did you get to boss me around?" Louie asked, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"Since I became the responsible one," Danny said with a smirk. "And since I let you move in with me." It was left unsaid, by Danny at least, the circumstances _behind_ Louie's moving in.

But Louie just _had_ to say it. "I'm the one who cleared your name," he pointed out. "So I was being responsible, too."

"You cleaned up a mess _you_ got me into," Danny said. But he didn't say it angrily or defensively. He said it like it was a simple fact, like how someone would say the sky is blue or the grass is green. "But, yeah, that was responsible." He pointed towards the bathroom. "Now go. Ma's going to kill us if we're late and, besides, she's going all out for dinner tonight."

"We having company?"

"Flack. Stella may or may not be over later."

"If Flack's the same as he was the last time I saw him, we better get there early or there won't be food left," Louie mumbled.

"Like I said. Get up, shower, get dressed and _let's go_."

Louie gave his brother a look and then shook his head as he pulled himself out of bed. "I swear, Danny..."

"What?" Danny said.

"You're one bossy SOB now."

"I learned it from the best," he said, pointing to his brother. "Now go or I'll tell Ma to let Flack start eating the minute he shows up."

**\- Don Flack, Jr. -**

It had the decency not to rain. Something had decided to let the day they buried him be overcast instead. Cold, but dry.

The team stood huddled together; not for warmth, but to separate themselves from everyone else. Flack may not have been a CSI but he had been one of them. He'd been a part of the team even when he felt torn between what he'd affectionately called "the geek squad" and his own people, regular cops and detectives like himself. And the entire department knew how Mac Taylor, Stella Bonasera, Danny Messer, Lindsay Monroe and Sheldon Hawkes felt about what had happened to him.

It was Stella who broke down first, and Mac pulled her into an embrace and let her cry onto his shoulder. Lindsay soon followed and this time it was Hawkes who was doing the comforting. The three men stood as solid and stoic as they could, though it was apparent to everyone that Danny was trying to hold it together himself.

In a twist of fate, Flack's grave was next to Aiden's. Whether it had been planned that way or not, Hawkes thought it was fitting. That was the one thought that kept him going through the actual funeral; he'd done his crying at the eulogy. Mac had done his in the privacy of his apartment. Stella had done it the first time over Flack's body. Lindsay was doing it now. Danny hadn't cried at all. He said at one point, very quietly, that he had no tears left. Three funerals in three months, he'd said. That just wasn't the way it was supposed to be.

And now they all watched as the gun salute began, as their fellow officers stood straight in their uniforms, uniforms that none of the CSIs had decided to wear, instead dressing in a range of black garments. Mac knew there'd be trouble about that later, but from the look on Flack's mother's face, he knew that she, at least, didn't mind.

And then the first drop of rain fell, hitting the casket.

Once it started to pour, only then did Danny finally cry. Stella saw it, let go of Mac and hugged him close as the rain fell. Lindsay rubbed his back lightly. Hawkes and Mac moved in to close ranks, to comfort the women and, in some small way, find comfort themselves.

Eventually everyone but the team left, letting the rain pour down on them and not caring as they said their final good-byes to their friend. It was the only comfort they'd be able to find in the entire situation, that moment by Flack's grave with the rain covering them from head to toe, when the heavens opened up and cried just like they all had.


End file.
